Unauthorized Acts: Risky Tales from a Vietnam Medic

by Criss Hinson

Medic Criss Hinson had been in Vietnam for only four days when unauthorized, he joined a flight in need of a medic to help transport wounded back to Da Nang. The plane was hit by machine gun rounds and forced to land in nearby rice paddies. Its passengers included four Green Berets, who along with Criss and the other men aboard had to fight a deadly battle with a Viet Cong patrol to reach a Marine outpost. Because of his varied skills and performance under pressure, for the rest of his tour in Vietnam, Criss was part of many dangerous missions, some outside the military's standard rules and regulations, and eventually he became a go-to medic for the legendary Air America. With wit, brash humor, vivid expression, and richly expressed feeling, Unauthorized Acts takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of missions, rescues, field duties, hospital assignments, and sudden shocking horror juxtaposed against the ordinary or ridiculous. Hinson recreates the war from a fresh and unusual perspective that is revealed to the reader in a sometimes unsettling, hilarious, or often profoundly moving way....

294 pages, Paperback

Published November 7, 2017

Reviews

[Joje · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's some feeling that the actions repeat a lot, at least at the beginning, although one knows that this is realistic for any war. And I guess it also makes sense that the repeated handiness of the Doc each time was what kept him and others alive, but it looked suspicious at first. I began suspecting that having waited so very long to talk, much less write, about these experiences would mean they'd been shaped a lot in memory, leaving Hinson the constant hero: one major pattern in the narrative.
Another puzzle has been how very detailed it is for having waited so long to tell it all. But thank heavens for that, since this reads well, and each anecdote does work, whether short or long, and the wait has added both a mild (usually) irony and allowed for shaping. Would we all did the same with our own tales!
A narrative pattern that has finally become clearer by the middle of the book is how he shows a true team spirit, even when working so much as a loner. This is finally established in the group of chapters around the Chu Lai assignment, which includes a rescue mission with two or three instances of his refusing to take all the praise for success: the parade formation he maneuvered for the green company sent in to build a hospital so they'd look and feel proud was comic but then moved into splendid in a certain way.
As for his heroic exploits from the start, I did have to go back to figure out what gave him his rather suspicious skills from his very first mission. It's given, if briefly, but I was interrupted at some point so had forgotten his hunting and N.Car. National Guard experiences.
Any team player and repetition with variation in art are always good things in my "book", so I am now fully engaged by the middle and expect to enjoy it from here on out.